NAME
Metabase - A database framework and API for resource metadata
VERSION
version 1.000
DESCRIPTION
Metabase is a database framework and API for resource metadata. The
framework describes how arbitrary data ("facts") are associated with
particular resources or related to each other. The API describes how to
store, retrieve, and search this information.
History and Motivation
Metabase was originally designed as a means of storing reports from the
CPAN Testers project. When Metabase was initially developed, CPAN
Testers reports were sent by individual testers to a single email
server, which then forwarded them to a USENET group, which was
considered the authoritative store. This presented problems: some
testers couldn't send email, the system wasn't very searchable, was hard
to mirror, and the data inside the system was entirely unstructured.
Metabase aimed to avoid all of those problems by being
transport-neutral, searchable and easier to mirror by design, and geared
toward storing structured data. Simplicity is another design goal: while
it has several moving parts, they're all simple and designed to be
replaceable and extensible, rather than to be a perfect design up front.
OVERVIEW
A Metabase has several parts:
* Metabase::Librarian, a class which manages access to the Archive and
Index
* Metabase::Gateway, a role for managing submission of facts to the
Librarian
* Metabase::Archive, a role for storing and retrieving facts
* Metabase::Index, a role for indexing and searching facts
* Metabase::Query, a role for translating a common query data
structure into a backend-specific query
Roles require implementations. These could use flat files, relational
databases, object databases, cloud services, or anything else that can
satisfy the role API.
Metabase comes with some simple, stupid backends for testing:
* Metabase::Archive::Filesystem
* Metabase::Index::FlatFile
Facts stored with in a Metabase are defined as subclasses of
Metabase::Fact. Metabase::Report is a subclass that relates multiple
facts.
Metabase::Web provides the web API for storing, searching and retrieving
facts. Metabase::Client::Simple is the client library to submit facts to
a Metabase::Web server. A future Metabase::Client class will provide
submit and search capabilities.
SEE ALSO
* Metabase::Backend::AWS
* Metabase::Backend::MongoDB
* Metabase::Backend::SQL
SUPPORT
Bugs / Feature Requests
Please report any bugs or feature requests through the issue tracker at
. You will be
notified automatically of any progress on your issue.
Source Code
This is open source software. The code repository is available for
public review and contribution under the terms of the license.
git clone https://github.com/dagolden/metabase.git
AUTHORS
* David Golden
* Ricardo Signes
* Leon Brocard
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is Copyright (c) 2012 by David Golden.
This is free software, licensed under:
The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004